Why The Adirondacks?

The early great camps, while we look at them now as the focal point of early Adirondack tourism, were once the first evidence of social divide within the newly born park. They began popping up around the Adirondacks around the late nineteenth century and grew in popularity as America moved into the new century, but as they developed, so to did the mining and logging towns fluctuate with alternating infusions of funding. The Great Camps were thus the first major paradox within the blue line; before conservationists saw the ecological importance of the mountains or the outdoorsmen claimed it for their own. The disparity in wealth effectively set up the battle of land ownership that is so central to the park’s future: outside wealth organizing its personal interests in the landscape, and designating private land for themselves.

The Adirondacks were almost the “safe” and luxurious way to experience the frontier life. Those too afraid (and wealthy enough) to venture west, but desiring an experience outside the metropolis of New York City naturally turned to the park, which despite being primarily wilderness, was a days trip from the city and the amenities of modern life. And while out in Wyoming and Montana, each family was on its own, in the Adirondacks, servants could be brought to tend to the tasks that sullied the luxury of a frontier experience. A family could experience the wilderness and then return to a lit fire, prepared meal, and warm bed without worry.